If Someone Walks up on Stage . . .

[Mr. Jelly]

Many, many, many years ago I was at a club and a friend explains to me that he asked the old out of town blues band to sit in with them. He asked me to join him. I didn't want to, he pressed so I said okay. At that point he tells me it'll be the last song of the night. I'm like what, no, what? Sorry to say I stayed to experience an old school blues band type of thing. And I did. They kicked off the song and I had to work at figuring out the key. What blues band plays in the key of F. I did "okay" but I believe they did that on purpose just to test us or mess with us. I deserved it and learned a couple of lessons.

[ol4t]

When I played for a living, it really infuriated me. My guitar was my prized possession. It was almost like "nice car, can I drive it?"
Plus, I felt like they need to get their own freaking band.

[sublro]

My stock reply is "I'm really sorry, but the last time I did that it did not go well - the manager was not happy and I lost a regular gig - i hope you can understand..." if someone wants to get angry after that it's proof I made the right call...

[JKA]

I find two words from the phonetic alphabet works a treat...Foxtrot Oscar.

[KevWind]

Saying no to any and every one, is the only way to be consistent and not play favorites. Makes life way simple ... even if a bit unpopular at times ..

[Mandobart]

When I was doing solo gigs I played my 10 string F4 style mandocello most of the time. Tuned in fifths C-G-D-A-E, with octave paired strings on the C, G and D courses.

Just about everyone plays (or thinks they can play) guitar. I've always figured there are at least 1,000 or more guitar players for every one mandolin player, and at least 1000 mandolin players for every one mandocello player.

The odds were always in my favor - no one ever asked if they could play my mandocello (or 10 string mandola or 10 string Hardanger viola either).

[FrankHudson]

OK, everyone knows this ridiculously chancey and a bad idea. But here's a story. A true story.

Somewhere in the 80s, a member of my band was getting married. His new bride was well-known the local First Nations community, and the ceremony and the wingding afterward was at a community center run by those folks.

He had this wild idea: we'd play the dance afterward, we'd be the wedding band. Who does that? Well, I liked the idea, weird as it sounds. We were kind of a "folk punk" band, and we didn't get to play for dancers all that much.

We arrived before the ceremony, setup our instruments in the gym where the dance and tables for food would be, and then got ready for the wedding proper, including the groom getting into their suit.

We're greeting the guests and such when we hear noise from the gym. A quartet of indigenous guys had picked up my Telecaster, and the bass, and manned the drums and combo organ we'd setup in the gym, powered up, and were playing a short set. Frankly they were as good or better that we were musicianship-wise. I didn't know then if they were guests or just folks in the Center for whatever other reason or thing.

I thought it a bit strange, yes. But the groom and I and those who'd started to arrive for the wedding applauded after they played about 15 minutes, maybe 4 songs or so.

And here's the final part of the story: we had bass and drums setup, but being a folk punk band we were a bit informal about our rhythm section: we had one band member, who was our best vocalist, who played bass and/or drums -- obviously not the latter two at the same time, so he'd move from the drum throne to the bass depending on the song.

The drummer from our unscheduled "opening act" sat in for our part as the wedding band. Having a complete rhythm section made our set tighter and better for dancing. To this day I don't even know his name.

[Brazad]

Play left handed like me and your problem goes down to a 2% chance [emoji1]

Gary

[Gordon Currie]

Absolutely never to a stranger and likely never to anyone else.

I DID loan my guitar to Donovan once whilst replacing a string he broke onstage.
That's the only time I've broken my rule.

[Monty Christo]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

They kicked off the song and I had to work at figuring out the key. What blues band plays in the key of F.

Capo on first fret or tune up a half-step!

[markcrawford]

been gigging for money for 30 years...every time I let someone on stage for anything, I regretted it. I have called up people that I know. If you are paying me....you are getting me, my band, or whatever I bring to the table.

The answer to op is noooooooooooooooooooo.

[Bluenose]

Originally Posted by Monty Christo

Capo on first fret or tune up a half-step!

Yes not too many blues songs in F but oddly enough it's the key that suits my voice the best and it's I think it's refreshing to hear a tune played in a flat key after listening to E, A and D all night.

I'm a Leon Redbone fan and he played quite a bit in F. "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" written buy either Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra depends who you talk to is fun to play and sing but it's not blues. F /A7/ D7/ G/ C7/F which is a I/III/VI/II/V/I progression that works pretty well in F I think.

[Tony Burns]

Ive seen this happen to someone at an open mike and the guitarist said yes - and the dumb a-- dropped his guitar.

So your answer from me is - NO !




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[Ricky_Rockhardo]

I had the opposite happen to me years ago. Happened to be at the "Les Paul Forum" jam with a friend of mine. The whole event was rather subdued and easygoing. There were several good players there and one of them also brought his Strat which he played through his Marshall SLP 100 amp.

I made a few comments to him about his playing and being "that guy" with the Strat at the forum event. He asked if I wanted to play the guitar. So he pointed to the case that it was in and said to take it for a spin. It was a nice, all original, players grade, '56 ash bodied Strat. He was so nonchalant about the whole thing and it really surprised me that he let me sit and play it for a few minutes as we weren't already acquainted in any way.

I felt so lucky and was very appreciative of his so humbly presenting it to me me like we were brothers or something. I can't say that I've even had that happen with my closest friends' guitars. He also had a black '58 Gibson Les Paul Custom but I didn't want to look like too much of a douche and ask about it......

[mr. beaumont]

That's a hard no. Not while I'm working.